Darla, a boxer mix, hoped one of the guests at Raising the Woof! would give her a forever home. (Steve Peterson, Special to The Denver Post)

Honestly? Not even a collection of rare and vintage automobiles could capture attention — or hearts — like Pinky, an 11-month-old American Staffordshire terrier whose right hind leg had to be amputated when the pup was four months old. Pinky had been discovered tied up under a bridge in Aurora, the leg bound so tightly that it was no longer viable.

Pinky was among the guests at Raising the Woof!, a dinner and dueling pianos show that celebrated the opening of Foothills Animal Shelter, 580 McIntyre St., Golden. Before moving into the $9.7, state-of-the-art facility on the Jefferson County Fairgrounds in late August, FAS was known as Table Mountain Animal Shelter.

Pinky is now the adored pet of Moni Piz-Wilson, a member of the FAS Foundation board, who also is the “mom” to Cookie, a graying Golden Retriever; Rio, a border collie; Kiwi, a Schipperke and Pootchie, a Chihuahua.

Lynn Raber, also a member of the FAS Foundation board, chaired Raising the Woof! with foundation executive director Megan Peters. It was held at The Mathews Collection in Arvada, home to Greg Mathews’ world class collection of rare and vintage automobiles.

The shelter’s executive director, Heather Cameron, helped the co-chairs greet the 200 guests, a group that included Colorado Avalanche goaltender Craig Anderson; Wheat Ridge City Manager Patrick Goff; Jefferson County Commissioners Kathy Hartman and Kevin McCasky; and Don Martin, who served as auctioneer.

Study after study has shown that when it comes to charitable fundraisers, Denver has more per capita than any comparably sized city in the nation. Joanne Davidson has been covering them for The Denver Post since 1985, coming here from her native California where she'd spent the previous seven years as San Francisco bureau chief for U.S. News & World Report magazine.